Solving the Maze was supposed to be the end.
Thomas was sure that escape from the Maze would mean freedom for him and the Gladers. But WICKED isn’t done yet. Phase Two has just begun. The Scorch.
There are no rules. There is no help. You either make it or you die.
The Gladers have two weeks to cross through the Scorch—the most burned-out section of the world. And WICKED has made sure to adjust the variables and stack the odds against them.
Friendships will be tested. Loyalties will be broken. All bets are off.
There are others now. Their survival depends on the Gladers’ destruction—and they’re determined to survive.

I am so happy The Scorch Trials did not let me down. I was worried my excitement would have sent my expectations over the moon and the story would not stand a chance. But all is good and I really enjoyed being reunited with the Gladers. The Maze Runner stays my favorite book so far, but The Scorch Trials is a very good sequel.

It’s the end of the line.
WICKED has taken everything from Thomas: his life, his memories, and now his only friends—the Gladers. But it’s finally over. The trials are complete, after one final test.
Will anyone survive?
What WICKED doesn’t know is that Thomas remembers far more than they think. And it’s enough to prove that he can’t believe a word of what they say.
The truth will be terrifying.
Thomas beat the Maze. He survived the Scorch. He’ll risk anything to save his friends. But the truth might be what ends it all.

The time for lies is over.

I decided not to wait to get to the next book. I really hope to get some answers from this one.

Every year, Blue Sargent stands next to her clairvoyant mother as the soon-to-be dead walk past. Blue never sees them–until this year, when a boy emerges from the dark and speaks to her.
His name is Gansey, a rich student at Aglionby, the local private school. Blue has a policy of staying away from Aglionby boys. Known as Raven Boys, they can only mean trouble.
But Blue is drawn to Gansey, in a way she can’t entirely explain. He is on a quest that has encompassed three other Raven Boys: Adam, the scholarship student who resents the privilege around him; Ronan, the fierce soul whose emotions range from anger to despair; and Noah, the taciturn watcher who notices many things but says very little.
For as long as she can remember, Blue has been warned that she will cause her true love to die. She doesn’t believe in true love, and never thought this would be a problem. But as her life becomes caught up in the strange and sinister world of the Raven Boys, she’s not so sure anymore.

To prepare my review for the Hype or Like book of the month, I decided to start The Raven Boys this week.

No thrillers or crime stories this week! I’ll make up for it soon with titles I am dying to read.

Have you read any of those books? What are you reading this week?Do share in the comments!
Happy reading!

Around 3am last night, I was looking for a distraction from my usual flow of middle-of-the-night thoughts when my mind reminded me I had missed my usual Wednesday night blogging party.

Oh dread, Oh infamy!

My sacred weeknight had been sacrificed. My precious time devoted to writing posts and commenting on the hundred WWW/This Week In Books memes had been stolen from me.

To recover from this incredible and shocking news, I listed all the reasons I don’t post as much as I wish I would, especially these days.

#1 Dogs

Have you ever tried writing a review when your baby dog is making those sad and imploring eyes while slowly sending her ball your way? Or get some reading done when your mom’s dog shoves the book out of the way to sleep on your lap?

#2 Books

Whoo, you’re happy you have your own blog, and you can’t wait to discuss that character’s habit to eat her hair, or rant about the fact that author killed your book boyfriend. But before you can do all of this, you need to actually READ BOOKS. What is the point of a book blog if you have no material to discuss?

#3 Life

Life loves sending unexpected (and uninvited) events your way. A friend moving houses, a family gathering (brrr!), a heartbroken best friend who needs a shoulder to cry on, a pipe that decides to burst and transform your apartment into a swimming pool.
Say goodbye to your blogging time!

#4 Social media

I spend so much time reading everyone’s tweets that I would have time to write 4 reviews a day if I signed off.

#5 Insomnia

Can you write more than two sentences that actually make sense without a decent amount of hours of sleep per week? I discovered I cannot. This is the main reason why I haven’t posted any reviews or interesting posts recently. Someone just knock me out for the night please.

I wake up feeling like a zombie on prozac. I make it through breakfast with only one eye open. I slouch on the couch with my textbooks with all the good will I am capable of. And then there’s a blank. The onset of a headache sends me to the kitchen for a tea. As much as I love tea and consider it the best beverage on Earth, its effect on a zombie are limited. Before I know it, it’s 7pm and hubby is back for his well-deserved dinner. I haven’t studied, written, or done anything a human would usually do on their waking hours. I barely handle a conversation (please don’t use complicated words that require a dictionary, like “pepperoni” or “cooking time” at this stage or you will only get a blank stare from me). When the night comes, I pray for Sandman to invite me to his little house for a nice chat and a Sex on The Beach. Instead, I make stupid lists and wait for my poor couple of hours of rest.

#6 Chores

Cooking. Cleaning. Grocery shopping. Showering. Walking. My God, those take an awful amount of hours in the day.

#7 Work

The most time-consuming activity of all times.

#8 TV Shows

They are evil. Those moving images have the magical power to hold my attention and make me lose track of time. I blink and suddenly I’ve lost four hours because I really wanted to know if Lorelai was really going to marry BIIIP. What starts as a “just one episode” always ends up with “oops, it’s dark outside, the fridge is empty and bedtime was two hours ago.”

#9 Hubby

Hubbies, just like plants, demand a lot of attention, liters of waterbeer coffee and if the mood is right, a bit of talking.

This list is not a list of complaints. I am currently happy to be a dog mom, take showers and have awesome TV shows to save me from boredom when I can’t read. I only wish there were more hours in the day!

What keeps you away from blogging? Do you always stick to your schedule? What is your secret? Do share and I will send you a waffle!

Note: our regular post format and content will resume tomorrow. In the meantime, I thought a little fun post would be a great way to spend a scorching day alone at home.

I kind of neglected my blog these past few days, but I am trying to catch up with your posts and my reviews now, and hopefully I will get enough sleep to post regularly again.

∧ Then ∧The Last Billable Hour, Susan Wolfe

Welcome to the Silicon Valley law firm of Tweedmore & Slyde, where multimillion-dollar deals are the order of the day, ambition runs high, and stabbing a colleague in the back could be taken all too literally.T&S is a hot firm making a bid to be a major national player when Leo Slyde—the company’s chief rainmaker, its king of the “billable hour”—is found stabbed to death in his corner office. It falls to T&S’s brightest, most unjustifiably insecure young associate Howard Rickover to conduct a risky “inside job” for homicide detective Sarah Nelson. But can Howard flush out a wily murderer among lawyers who do not make it their practice to be caught unprepared—and still keep up with an associate’s impossible workload?

I finished this one yesterday afternoon. It took me more time than expected because the story dragged a lot in the first quarter, and the pace only got slightly better after, but not enough for me to really enjoy the story.

A professional thief returns home and must round up the perfect team to carry out a unique heist. Can they pull it off before her murderous ex-boyfriend and a psychotic crime kingpin cause the whole thing to come crashing down?Violet Winters is a professional thief. Clever and resourceful, she can walk in to any building and leave with the goods. Betrayed by her murderous boyfriend she has spent eighteen months in exile but Violet is lured back home to Kilchester for a unique heist. She must steal a ‘painting’ — a blank canvas, signed by Salvador Dali — and replace it with a forgery. Everything is going to plan until local crime kingpin Big Terry crashes the party. With the start of the heist hours away Violet doesn’t know who she can trust, whether she is going to walk into the room with the painting and find the police waiting for her or if she’ll get beaten to death by a furious midget. And then everything goes sideways.

Let’s be honest, I don’t understand much about art. But who cares? Look at that interesting cover! Plus, thieves, a big prize, and betrayal sound like a great mix.

Solving the Maze was supposed to be the end.
Thomas was sure that escape from the Maze would mean freedom for him and the Gladers. But WICKED isn’t done yet. Phase Two has just begun. The Scorch.
There are no rules. There is no help. You either make it or you die.
The Gladers have two weeks to cross through the Scorch—the most burned-out section of the world. And WICKED has made sure to adjust the variables and stack the odds against them.
Friendships will be tested. Loyalties will be broken. All bets are off.
There are others now. Their survival depends on the Gladers’ destruction—and they’re determined to survive.

My first physical book in weeks! I will finally get to know what happens to the group after they escaped the Maze! You have no idea how much will it took me not to pick this book sooner.

Have you read any of those books? What are you reading this week?Do share in the comments!
Happy reading!

Sun, croissants and fine wine. Nothing can spoil the perfect holiday. Or can it?

When Emmy Jamieson arrives at La Cour des Roses, a beautiful guesthouse in the French countryside, she can’t wait to spend two weeks relaxing with boyfriend Nathan. Their relationship needs a little TLC and Emmy is certain this holiday will do the trick. But they’ve barely unpacked before he scarpers with Gloria, the guesthouse owner’s cougar wife.

Rupert, the ailing guesthouse owner, is shell-shocked. Feeling somewhat responsible, and rather generous after a bottle (or so) of wine, heartbroken Emmy offers to help. Changing sheets in the gîtes will help keep her mind off her misery.

Thrust into the heart of the local community, Emmy suddenly finds herself surrounded by new friends. And with sizzling hot gardener Ryan and the infuriating (if gorgeous) accountant Alain providing welcome distractions, Nathan is fast becoming a distant memory.

Fresh coffee and croissants for breakfast, feeding the hens in the warm evening light; Emmy starts to feel quite at home. But it would be madness to walk away from her friends, family, and everything she’s ever worked for, to take a chance on a place she fell for on holiday – wouldn’t it?

This is the final chapter of “Donna’s Adventures in Water”! *does her happy dance* The landlord finally sent the plumber again and this time he should not have to come back. Now, I can resume my regular schedule and go back to slouching on the couch with my books.

Sun, croissants and fine wine. Nothing can spoil the perfect holiday. Or can it? When Emmy Jamieson arrives at La Cour des Roses, a beautiful guesthouse in the French countryside, she can’t wait to spend two weeks relaxing with boyfriend Nathan. Their relationship needs a little TLC and Emmy is certain this holiday will do the trick. But they’ve barely unpacked before he scarpers with Gloria, the guesthouse owner’s cougar wife. Rupert, the ailing guesthouse owner, is shell-shocked. Feeling somewhat responsible, and rather generous after a bottle (or so) of wine, heartbroken Emmy offers to help. Changing sheets in the gîtes will help keep her mind off her misery. Thrust into the heart of the local community, Emmy suddenly finds herself surrounded by new friends. And with sizzling hot gardener Ryan and the infuriating (if gorgeous) accountant Alain providing welcome distractions, Nathan is fast becoming a distant memory. Fresh coffee and croissants for breakfast, feeding the hens in the warm evening light; Emmy starts to feel quite at home. But it would be madness to walk away from her friends, family, and everything she’s ever worked for, to take a chance on a place she fell for on holiday – wouldn’t it?

I finished this book last Friday and I am still in La Cour Des Roses. I don’t want this holiday to end. This book is my summer crush. I already asked for the physical copy as a birthday gift. The review will be published on June 2nd.

The First Harry Macadam Novel: After a body is pulled from the river Aire, what seemed like a straightforward missing person’s search becomes something much more dangerous for psychic investigator Harry Macadam.
Harry and his team from the Portmanteau Investigations Agency are rapidly drawn into a web of intrigue and find themselves being watched by both the police as well as a darker, more mysterious adversary. The hunt for the missing woman leads them towards a criminal underworld that few people know about. Anyone that gets close to the truth doesn’t live to tell and a similar fate awaits an unknowing Harry as he uses his uncanny mental abilities to peel away layer after layer of secrets and lies. To prevail against the utter evil that lurks in the shadows around him, Harry must not only discover a horror beyond anything he could imagine, but also confront the demons that hide inside him. For Harry has his own secrets. Ones that he himself doesn’t even understand the full truth of and on those hidden truths rest the fates of dozens of souls. Who is the real danger? The killer that he seeks, or Harry himself?

I really like the writing and the humor in this book. As a grammar (and general) freak, some errors irked me, but it has not distracted me from the story. I have lots of questions that need answers, so I hope to finish it tomorrow or Thursday.

∨ Next ∨The Last Billable Hour, Susan Wolfe

Welcome to the Silicon Valley law firm of Tweedmore & Slyde, where multimillion-dollar deals are the order of the day, ambition runs high, and stabbing a colleague in the back could be taken all too literally.T&S is a hot firm making a bid to be a major national player when Leo Slyde—the company’s chief rainmaker, its king of the “billable hour”—is found stabbed to death in his corner office. It falls to T&S’s brightest, most unjustifiably insecure young associate Howard Rickover to conduct a risky “inside job” for homicide detective Sarah Nelson. But can Howard flush out a wily murderer among lawyers who do not make it their practice to be caught unprepared—and still keep up with an associate’s impossible workload?

Does that make sense if I tell you I love the word “billable” and that it is the reason I was attracted to this book? First, it screams Lawyers In The Room. If you’ve been around for some time, you might already know I can’t resist stories involving lawyers. Secondly, “billable” is a word I use for pronunciation exercises and I think it is one of my favorite words. In brief, this book was waiting for me.

Have you read any of those books? What are you reading this week?Do share in the comments!
Happy reading!